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Friday, December 31, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Eleven Loaves of Bread! Pull out your favorite bread recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the eleventh day of Bloggie-mas!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Eleven Loaves of Bread!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....10 Bubbling Casseroles! Pull out your favorite casserole recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the tenth day of Bloggie-mas!

On the tenth day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Ten Bubbling Casseroles!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Nine Loaded Sandwiches! Pull out your favorite sandwich recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the ninth day of Bloggie-mas!

On the ninth day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Nine Loaded Sandwiches!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Eight Steaming Plates of Pasta! Pull out your favorite pasta recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the eighth day of Bloggie-mas!

On the eighth day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Eight Steaming Plates of Pasta!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Monday, December 27, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Hearth and Soul Hop! Pull out your favorite recipes to link up and share the love of good food this season!

The Hearth and Soul Hop is born as a continuation and expansion of the Two for Tuesday Recipe Blog Hop and we hope you will join with us in sharing our beliefs that food not only nourishes our bodies, but our souls! To really get clear on what we are talking about, please check out our nifty new mission statement!

Hearth and Soul Mission:

Food from your hearth, to feed your soul. Food that follows your intuition. Preparing food from scratch to nourish your family…body, mind AND soul! Food made with your own hands…infused with energy and passion and intent. Real food made by real people to feed real families (big and small, in blood or spirit). Ingredients from scratch, be it something grown in your garden or raised on your land…food foraged in the field or woods…food from local farms, farmers, or farmers markets…or even ingredients chosen by you from your local market that will be turned into something that feeds your soul. Tapping the food memory that each of us has stored inside; letting it guide and influence our own time in the kitchen.

We hope to embrace not only the “expected” areas of real food, but also those who want to incorporate healthier choices without sacrificing their love of food…how it tastes, the memories it conjures up, the comfort it brings. Yes, we’re trying to steer clear of packaged, processed, and boxed foods in favor of real foods….without absolutely excluding the sometimes frowned upon white sugar or flour (because the body craves what it craves…and sometimes things just don’t taste the same when you replace these). Making conscious choices and being present in the now with what your body needs…and taking steps towards exploring and enjoying healthier choices. If you take the time to listen, your body will tell you what it needs.

The warm comfort of the home hearth…stories, anecdotes, lessons, adventures, journeys, recipes, meals, beverages…we want to share the “why” of how food feeds more than just our bodies…how it also feeds our souls. After all, aren’t these the essential ingredients in defining real food? Please share links from your Hearth ‘n Soul with us each week.

Rules for linking:

Please use your best blog hop etiquette when linking. The rules are in place to help everyone have the best blog hop experience possible. Because of the overwhelming success of Two for Tuesday, a few changes have been made in the rules, so we kindly ask you to please review them so we can all be on the same page.

If you are new to a blog carnival, or blog hop, it is very easy to learn how to join in the fun! Simply go to the blog post for that carnival and scroll down to the bottom where you will see a small box that will say, Your Next or Your link here. When you click on that link, you will be asked to enter the URL of your recipe or article. Please link to your article only and not directly to your blog front page. The linky may ask you to upload a photograph from your computer, then you click next and leave a comment on the blog hosts post. You will also be asked to place a link back to the blog host, which means, adding in the URL of the blog hop post which you can copy from your browser address bar and insert at the bottom of your post. You could also choose to place a blog badge into your post, which was explained below. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

*A host will visit each link and read and comment on your post before the next linky period opens, because this is personal for us…we want you to know that we appreciate that you’ve taken the time to create a post, add a link back to the hop, and add your link! We’ll be sure to acknowledge this with a comment and a tweet on Twitter (using hashtag #hsoul).

-One link per week, please

-Must include a link back to one/any of the host sites (through worded link or badge) in individual post, not on sidebar…although we love having links on your page, as well (this benefits all of us). You will be sent a gentle reminder if no link is added to your post, we understand that sometimes people forget…but if it becomes a regular occurrence, (even though we don’t like to do it) your post may be removed. It’s just not fair to those who do take the time and show the grace to link back.

-Try to link a post that you think fits into the mission. You don’t have to link up every week…link up when you can. We welcome posts that are shared in other events. If you have an older, archived post that you want to add, we welcome that…as long as you go in and add a link back to Hearth ‘n Soul

What is a blog hop you ask? Well, you can find out by visiting my Hearth and Soul Blog Hop page for a complete explanation, but basically, it is a way to link together various foodie love blogs so that you can enjoy many new healthy food recipes that you might not have been exposed to before!

Right now, A Moderate Life, Girlichef, Hunger and Thirst, Frugalcrunchychristy, and Alternative Health & Nutrition are teaming up to share the Blog Hop with their audiences. If you haven't been to their blogs before, then you certainly should, as they are tremendously creative cooks who are passionate about health and food and all are taking steps to cook more wholesome and soul nourishing food. This means you get exposure to four blog audiences for the price of one link, so we should really rename this 5 for Tuesday! :)

So, please link a recipe using the linky tools below and your link will be shared over 5 different blogs and with 5 different blog audiences. Recipes should include healthy ingredients and can be old or new recipes or posts. Articles on real food, slow food, foraging, herbal remedies, local food, sustainable food, organics, gardening or any healthy eating information is also welcome. Each participant's link will be tweeted and given a high quality feedback comment to increase your exposure.

Please use your best blog carnival etiquette and use the URL to your post, and not your blog landing page. Please post a link in your article back to the blog you are using the Linky Tools with and if you want to, please share the hearth and soul hop badge listed below to promote the Blog Hop. We would ask you to subscribe to our feed and Tweet the Blog Hop as well if you would be so kind!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Six Sumptuous Side Dishes! Pull out your favorite side dish recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the sixth day of Bloggie-mas!

On the sixth day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Six Sumptuous Side Dishes!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Five Golden Brown Cookies! Pull out your favorite cookie recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the fifth day of Bloggie-mas!

On the fifth day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Five Golden Brown Cookies!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Friday, December 24, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Four Scrumptious Cakes! Pull out your favorite cake recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the fourth day of Bloggie-mas!

On the fourth day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Four Scrumptious Cakes!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Three Lovely Cookbooks! Pull out your favorite cookbooks recipes that you've loved the most and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the third day of Bloggie-mas!

On the third day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Three Lovely Cookbooks!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....Two Tasty Tomatoes! Pull out your favorite tomato recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the second day of Bloggie-mas!

On the second day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

Two Tasty Tomatoes!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

First and foremost....I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! I hope that your holidays are filled with celebration, family, good food and spending time with friends.

I'm happy to co-host with Alex of A Moderate Life on "The 12 Days of Bloggiemas" a celebration of food and recipes. Every day for 12 days there will be a different theme you can participate in....

Today's theme for the 12 Days of Bloggiemas is .....One Favorite Recipe! Pull out your all time favorite recipes that you've linked up and share the love of good food this season!

Continue reading for a message from Alex of A Moderate Life.......

I wanted to send you all a holiday blessing, no matter what holiday you celebrate because you are all a wonderful part of my life and sharing the foodie love with you has been a huge blessing in my life!

A Foodie Blessing

May your garlic always be pungent, may your greens always be bitter, may your goat cheese always be tart and may your bread always rise! No matter what ingredients you have on hand, may you always, through your love of food and creative spark, make a meal to remember, to nourish and share with those you love!

The 12 Days of Bloggie-mas is a celebration of foodie love and recipes! Each day for 12 days we will be sharing a theme loosely based on the 12 Days of Christmas song, just for the fun of it. The point of the daily roundup is to give you a break over the holidays if you are not writing new content, but still allow you to share your older recipes, posts and blogging memories, so folks will "leaf through" your older stuff, which is all wonderful and new to many folks! WE all tend to think we are only as good as our front pages, but there is a huge wealth of materials in our blog "back catalogs" that we should be sharing with others!

What you need to do to join in the 12 Days of Bloggie-Mas!

Please stop by daily for a few minutes, find out the theme, browse your "back catalog" of archived posts, find an appropriate one, link it to the daily linky (there is a new linky every day) and place a back link to the hop. Please link back with 12 Days of Bloggie-mas as the anchor text. One linked recipe per blog per day. It is that simple! You can participate daily or only on the days you have time. No pressure! It is the holidays after all!

You Could Win a $45 CSN Gift Certificate!

For each day you link up a recipe, you will also be entered to win a $45 CSN online store gift certificate which will be drawn from all links on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 (!) and posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop that tuesday. If you don't already know, CSN stores are a wonderful online shopping experience where you can browse literally thousands of items at wonderful prices like Cookware and Bakeware, Modern Decor and Game room Furniture. Remember to enter your email address on the linky so I will be able to contact you if you won. If you do not wish to link a recipe, but want to enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment on my blog mentioning an item you would like to get from CSN stores and do one of the following:
Follow me on http://twitter.com/#%21/amoderatelife
Subscribe to my Rss Feed or Email Updates at a Moderate Life.

You could Win a Cookbook from a Big Pile of Them!

I will also be giving away a cookbook at the end of the 12 days! You will be entering this giveaway automatically by posting a link or leaving a comment for the CSN giveaway. If you win, you will have a choice of the following cookbooks: Raw, the Uncookbook by Juliano, 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice Beans and Grains by Andrea Chesman, The Slow Cooker Bible, 3 Books in 1 Appetizers, Party Food and Entertaining (similar to this one), or a Treasury of Christmas Cooking, Crafts and Gifts. If you win the cookbook giveaway, I will email you and ask you which book you want, whether you want me to write a personal inscription for you, where to send it too and I will wrap it up and send it right out!
The giveaways are open to all US residents +18 years of age. Prize winners will be notified by email after the winner is posted on the Hearth and Soul Hop on Tuesday, January 4, 2011. Winners have 48 hours to respond to the email or another winner will be chosen.

Now for the Fun!

Here is the theme for the first day of Bloggie-mas!

On the first day of Christmas my Bloggies gave to me

One Favorite Recipe!

Link up any entry you have ever linked to the Hearth and Soul hop previously. If you have never linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop, you should check it out! I have been blessed to meet so many wonderful bloggers through this Hearth Felt blog hop and I count them all as a wonderful gift during the holiday season and all year long! Thank you to all past hop contributors for your foodie love and support!
So get linking and see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas! Remember as well that you can visit the following blog for more Bloggie-mas fun: Alternative Health and Nutrition News!

Monday, December 20, 2010

This weekend I spent time in my old home-town. I visited some old friends, had an awesome steak dinner (gotta get that recipe!) with a new friend, did some house sitting and visited with family.

Most of the family visiting I did was with one of my aunts (youngest of 5) and my grandmother on my dad's side. Sadly, she is the only grandparent I have still living and is one of the people I respect most on this patch of grass and gravel we call Earth.

She just celebrated a birthday not long ago and last time I checked.... is still the classiest woman in any room. She was married to my papa for 59 years before he passed away and they had a great life together. They raised 6 kids, 5 girls and a boy and like many across the world....did the best they knew how....

I've always thought a lot of my grandparents....on both sides of the family....as they were outstanding individuals by any standard. Both of my grandpa's were self-employed, lived and breathed for their children, worked the land and would rather take a beating than to lie, cheat or steal. My grandmothers, both raised kids and worked outside the home later in life.

The thing I remember most of my grandparents was going to their homes and learning how they lived when they were young. Either through examples or stories, I would be fascinated to hear of the struggles, pot-holes and other bumps in the road on their journey's through life.

Everyone has a story.....and most are fascinating if you only take the time to listen.... I'm afraid that we are becoming so involved in our own lives that we don't pay attention to the advice that the older generation can give us.

We're rapidly coming to an end of the generation that crossed the plains in a covered wagon as children....as well as the latest 2010 autos from your local dealer.

I remember my grandparents teaching me things like....how to plant a garden, build fences around the pasture, dry apples from the tree in the backyard, and cure pork in the smokehouse to name just a few.

The older generations have so much knowledge to give that I often wonder.....what will happen when they are gone??

Do people today know how to grow their own vegetables, hunt for food or find water and dig a well? What would they do if they couldn't run to the store for groceries or their favorite pair of shoes?

I admit....I'd be in trouble myself in the shoe department....maybe I should have more than 2 pairs....but I'm covered as far as the food and shelter is concerned. :-)

What stories do you remember from your grandparents? What did they teach you?? Tell us in the comments.....

Friday, December 17, 2010

I'm a voracious reader. Magazines, books, articles, and especially news items consume a significant part of my life. I own a television but don't have satellite or cable and apart from watching a movie with my boys, rarely turn it on. I get fed up with the endless stories of tragedy, heartache, betrayal and "blood & guts" as I refer to it.

I have found that I am infinitely happier in my life when I don't listen to it. I stay very informed about the news of the day especially as it can affect my little corner of the world but apart from that I could care less.

I do however, love to hear real-life stories of triumph, perserverance and personal sacrifice for the greater good. Those stories that lift you up and make you proud to be in my case an American but in yours wherever you call home. The stories that renew your faith in your god, country and fellow man. The ones that bring a smile to your face later that day, week or month. Those are the ones that we don't hear enough about and this is my small effort to change that.......

Feel good stories abound this time of year....as many are overcome with the spirit of the season. Helping those truly in need is not only important now but at all times of the year. So many get caught up in the everyday grind and forget these things...myself included.

In our home, I teach my kids that Christmas does not have anything to do with how many presents they can unwrap...but Christ's birth. At such a young age the presents mean a lot to them but they still remember. :-)

JOPLIN, Mo. — The Joplin Salvation Army has once again gotten an early Christmas gift from “Santa Claus.”

Five checks totaling $100,000 were dropped into the Salvation Army’s red kettle at Walgreens, 20th and Main streets, sometime between 5 and 9 p.m. Monday, Capt. Jason Poff said.

“They were folded and hidden within dollar bills,” he said. “Really, it feels surprising, shocking, amazing all at the same time when you open up a bucket and $20,000 checks start falling out.”

This is at least the fifth consecutive year in which the local organization has received a substantial anonymous donation, in the form of Commerce Bank cashier’s checks with the remitter identified as “Santa Claus.” Over the past five Christmas seasons, the local Salvation Army has reaped $350,000 in checks from the anonymous Santa.

The checks put the group about $20,000 away from this year’s Red Kettle Campaign goal of $230,000, Poff said.

Poff said he would like to thank both the donor as well as the daily Secret Santas who contribute their spare change to the red kettles.

“Obviously the amount of trust they put in us with that kind of gift is overwhelming,” he said.

What an amazing person to give in such a substantial way. Every time I hear a story like this it makes me feel good for days and I'll bet you think of it too the next time you pass a Salvation Army red kettle.

Sometimes I feel bad when I pass by a kettle and don't make a donation...either because I don't have any cash on me....or I just don't have it. But I try to remember....and you should too.....helping those in need is not just about giving money. You can help those in need by giving your time....and not even have to leave your neighborhood or go far from your home. There is most definitely someone living very close to you that
could use your help for a couple of afternoons a month.....an elderly couple, a young mother or a disabled veteran to name a few.....Get to know your neighbors.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

When I think of comfort foods.....one favorite immediately comes to mind! Roast.....and not just any old variety will do but venison roast...it is truly one of my favorite foods!

I can just see some of you nodding along with me while others are skeptical or perhaps in absolute denial....Fear not! I've served venison to many people from all walks of life in my home and never had one person give anything but high praise for the meal.

There are no doubt people who have had a venison meal that was not to their liking. I often hear people talk of a "strong, gamey taste" that tends to give them a biased opinion of all future meals and that is really too bad....

The most important part of a delicious venison meal...like any other...is preparation. Ensuring the deer was cleaned, hung, cooled, quartered, and processed properly is vital to good taste....no different than all meats from your favorite grocer or restaurant. I will have a post regarding venison preparation (from field to freezer) hopefully in the near future.

This particular roast comes from the shoulder of the aforementioned deer....as it is not suitable for steaks or other fine cuts. I cut my shoulders approximately in half using a crosscut. This not only allows the roast to fit in my dutch oven but gives you the wonderful flavor from the marrow during the cooking process.

Lets get to the recipe!

Ingredients:

12" Dutch Oven

1 - venison shoulder cut in half (cross-cut)

5 - medium potatoes of your choice (peeled and cubed)

2 - 3 medium to large carrots, peeled (I only had baby carrots)

1 large jalapeno pepper

Salt and Pepper to taste

1.5 tsp Italian Seasoning

1 onion of choice (chopped)

Directions:

Much like any other roast this one is very simple. When preparing venison I will ALWAYS soak overnight, or at least for 4-6 hours, in a salt water solution of about 1 TBS+ per quart of water. The important thing is to make sure the meat is immersed and then after soaking, thoroughly rinsed. I have done this since I was old enough to help my dad with the preparation and I'm convinced it removes much of the "gamey" taste people speak of. In fact I'm sure of it as I have eaten venison that was not soaked.

Trim off excess fat from the shoulder, leaving enough to enhance flavoring. Place the shoulder in your dutch oven with water just covering the top. Salt and pepper liberally at this time. Place approximately 15+ coals under the oven to start the cooking.

You want to ensure that the water is bubbling slowly (just above simmering) to keep your timeline about right....about 4 - 5 hours.

After 2 hours cooking time (you'll need to check your coals every 40 minutes and add as necessary to maintain temps) you will add your italian seasoning, carrots, potatoes, jalapeno and onion. Cover and resume cooking, checking the consistentcy of the roast around the 4th hour.

Venison roast, like any other, should pull apart easily when finished. A little brown gravy over the top and you have the feast of the month! Some of the sharp eyed readers will note that green colored ceramic dish in the picture. While venison roast has been cooked many times in the dutch oven....I don't have any pictures handy and cooked this one at a friends house in a crockpot. Enjoy!!

This post is part of the following blog carnivals......Go check out these great sites!!